Sylvania 12ax7wa seem to be a very important ingredient

texwest · Post by **texwest** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:20 pm

Just wanted to tell you guys that I got three NOS Sylvania 12ax7wa's. Put them in all three slots of my metro 12 series. It all of a suddent sounds alot more VH. In fact I've been compring power tubes also. Mullard xf4's, xf2's, siemens and old tesla's and I think these pre's may be more important than the relative differences between the power tubes. They give you a growly distortion that is just it. And this is a cheap way to get closer to the tone. I just need to get some old Sylvania 6ca7's and test those. Does anyone have a quad?

Wes

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:32 pm

+1 on the Sylvannia 12ax7wa

Bainzy · Post by **Bainzy** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:38 pm

Nice tubes - I use them in V2 and V3 in my amp. To be honest I didn't really notice them being any closer to EVH when I first tried them (even in V1), but I guess maybe that's because I'm not after that tone.

Bainzy · Post by **Bainzy** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 5:41 pm

mightymike wrote:...close to a Mullard

If you think the 40's/50's 12ax7wa's are close to a Mullard Mike, you should try the later Sylvania 12AX7's. That's what I'm using in V1, I've now retired my Mullard for a bit there as the difference isn't worth changing back.

bmf5150 · Post by **bmf5150** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 10:22 pm

SHHHH you dont want everyone to know,then we wont be able to get them cheap.thats what i have been using for the past couple of years.those are suppose to be what EVH recorded with and what he designed the 5150 around tube wise..

Guitar Adjuster · Post by **Guitar Adjuster** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:01 pm

Give Tube Tramp a call I got 2 Slyvania 6ca7's from him a while back for a great price..

mightymike · Post by **mightymike** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:33 am

Bainzy wrote:
mightymike wrote:...close to a Mullard
If you think the 40's/50's 12ax7wa's are close to a Mullard Mike, you should try the later Sylvania 12AX7's. That's what I'm using in V1, I've now retired my Mullard for a bit there as the difference isn't worth changing back.

I don't have any from the 40's/50's
I have 4 sets of 3 Jan Sylvania 2ax7wa tubes

3 sets are from he 60s
1 set from the 70s

I found a guy a while back who had a bunch of matched sets, and grabbed them up. Since then, I've switched from Mullard to Sylvannia, because I get for half the price of a NOS Mullard, and they sound very close to an Old Mullard.

To me the biggest difference between old tubes and current production, is the way they clean up when you roll off the volume, and harmonics.